Palestinians Pour Across Egypt Border As Border Breached

A major protest is now unfolding in the Gaza strip, where thousands of Palestinians are pouring across the border after masked gunmen blew up a barrier in defiance of an action by Israel:

Tens of thousands of Palestinians on foot and on donkey carts poured into Egypt from Gaza Wednesday after masked gunmen used land mines to blast down a seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.

The border breach was a dramatic protest against the closure of the impoverished Palestinian territory imposed last week by Israel.

Jubilant men and women crossed unhindered by border controls over the toppled corrugated metal along sections of the barrier, carrying goats, chickens and crates of Coca-Cola. Some brought back televisions, car tires and cigarettes and one man even bought a motorcycle. Vendors sold soft drinks and baked goods to the crowds.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said his security forces have been ordered to let people from Gaza buy food — a sign of solidarity that will do him well domestically. He’a slao clearly trying not to get stuck in the middle of some Palestinian politics as well:

Mubarak said that for a permanent solution for Gaza the two Palestinian groups, Fatah and Hamas, needed to reach their own agreement. Egypt has tried to bring about reconciliation between the Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Fatah, which runs the West Bank.

“But if we speak to one Palestinian party we find the other party gets angry. If we ask them to negotiate without preconditions, some of them get angry,” he said.

“There are many problems between them but I do not want to get into the details,” Mubarak added.

He said Egypt did not intend to withdraw its ambassador from Israel in protest at the blockade of Gaza. “If that happened, I wouldn’t be able to talk to the Israelis. One has to be reasonable in such matters,” he added.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said earlier that the Egyptian authorities planned to “contain” the situation on the Gaza border and were holding inter-agency consultations on how to achieve that objective.

The BBC gave this eyewitness account:

The BBC’s Ian Pannell witnessed dramatic scenes on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, after Palestinians forced the barriers down.

I’m standing on the 10m- (30ft) high corrugated metal wall that was physically knocked down this morning.

My left-hand side is in Egypt, my right-hand side is in the Gaza Strip.

There is a man walking over flattened corrugated metal, pulling a goat into Gaza.

We have seen people crowding around petrol stations, desperately filling up on fuel.

We have seen families with luggage, cases held up high, as people are pouring in both directions across this border, but primarily from Gaza into Egypt.

This has been an opportunity for people to catch up with family and friends, but also to catch up on shopping

Essentially what has happened here is that the people of Gaza have forced on Egypt and Israel and the international community what everyone else refused to allow to happen – which was for the border crossing to be opened.

They have done it themselves.

Hamas’ exiled leader has now said his group would be willing to meet with Fatah and Egyptian government officials to work out a shared arrangement on the Gaza crossings. Unity? Or the seeds of new division? Stay tuned..

UPDATE: Blog reaction is HERE.